Molting the Mortal Coil

In a dark room more than thirty faces were visible only because of the light reflecting off their hands and faces. They were all standing around a waist height cylindrical pedestal upon which was something that held all of their attention. This ‘thing’ was a projection emitted from the pedestal, a three dimensional formation of light that had far higher resolution and detail than any hologram that Sage had ever seen on Earth. Inside this pedestal were less advanced versions of an Adjutor, the same sorts of biocomputers and devices that had now become commonplace on the Inner World. What form of technology could be better than one that didn’t take any effort to build?

All it took was feeding little larvae till they grew up into large bugs and they were now fully functional equipment. As they were merely Spirit Insects they had limited lifespans, two to ten times more than normal insects depending on their rank, but this still was measured in a number of years. Having to replace your gadgets every few years was not that big of a detriment as it gave people an excuse to upgrade to ‘newer models’. Sage disliked truly predatory business practices, but there was no reason not to try and put a spin on any negative aspects.

The light reflecting on their faces was cast by the projection in front of them and each of these people had a little flat slate in their hands. Each slate was covered in small glowing characters and pictures. These words and numbers weren’t static, but were moving and shifting. A few were even waving a fingertip against the slate and glowing characters appeared where they touched. These were Magic Tools that were older than the biocomputers, but were still useful enough to be used for communication. Each of the people in this room had a mental link to an Adjutor to do calculations, take notes, or keep track of any number of things, but Sage had insisted that the Adjutors not be linked to any other outside sources like the other biocomputers were.

As a former human of the Information Age, he understood the value and also the dangers of large networks. There was a network of biocomputers set up on the Inner World, but it was restricted to large and expensive installations. There were terminals in every city center, large businesses, entertainment outlets, and many others, but only the most wealthy could afford to have personalized access. This network was set up more like a bunch of interactive television channels rather than the fully open ended internet. There were options for learning, entertainment, and shopping, with many businesses creating their own unique and customized versions of these things.

The slates that the people in this room held were linked to teams of researchers in other locations, sending communications to these team leaders of theirs. They couldn’t just gather hundreds or thousands of people into this small room and expect to get anything done, it would simply devolve into chaos. Instead these teams were working on their own specific areas of expertise and feeding their findings to the people in this room. Then these leaders could ask the proper questions of their teams and get clarifications or give guidance without it turning into a shouting match. At this time these thirty over faces were silent, unable to give an answer to the question that had been asked of them.

“What is it?”

These simple words had come from the golden eyed man standing in front of the large projection. He didn’t carry a slate like the others, instead just staring upwards with an intrigued gaze. The projection they were looking at was somewhat vague and insubstantial and while it looked to be a still image those who looked closely could see that it was actually moving very very slowly. They saw deep blue water dissolving into blackness in the distance.

From that dark abyss were vague outlines of large tentacles that were unlike any they’d seen before. Since when were tentacles lined with scales and armed with claws. In fact they would look more like prehensile reptile tails if it were not for the fact they also had suction cups and were writhing around each other in perfect unity. Without that coordinated motion that they recognized as a form of swimming motion, they might have thought it was a pile of aquatic lizards just slightly out of view.

“Sir, from the arrangements of the tentacles, it seems to be moving in the manner of an Octopus.”

This researcher touched his slate to the side of the pedestal and glowing lines highlighted the shape of the tentacles they could see and then drew the outline of the body of an octopus in the dark space at the center of them. A few researchers touched their slates to the pedestal and sent this information to their teams. Yet, it seemed they weren’t all convinced. Another team leader stepped forward and touched their slate to the pedestal to change the glowing overlay to something different. The reasoning for this was instantly apparent: there were too many tentacles.

While the spacing and motion of them were consistent with the shape of an octopus, they could all see over a hundred tentacles on the screen. This newer overlay showed the eight groupings of tentacles that the first researcher had indicated were the eight tentacles of an octopus as instead being the tentacles of eight cuttlefish-like shapes with the long strange tentacles emerging from their faces. Squid commonly swam head first, as did octopus when they were using a jet of water to escape rapidly. Seeing this tentacled being coming towards them tentacles first meant it was an octopus style creature moving slowly or some sort of cuttlefish-like creature that had other fins it used for propulsion.

Another researcher stepped up and touched their slate to the pedestal and the multiple cuttlefish outlines disappeared, replaced by a gigantic outline. This woman spoke rapidly, “My team has theorized that these smaller groups of tentacles are not individual but branches of a single limb. The direction of the claws and twist of the tentacles look like they come from a single source, which fits the cuttlefish-type theory, but there are no signs of overlapping signatures from its aura, instead it seems to come from a single overwhelming source.

Sage finally spoke up at this point, nodding his head, “I concur. Looks like we’ve run into a bonafide Kraken. How interesting!”

Kraken was not the official name of any Demonic Beasts in the books Sage had read. It was only his own designation at the prospect of a gigantic and powerful tentacled sea monster. He guessed it was similar to Dragon and Phoenix, in that it might be used as part of another name, but no one dared to name something with the simple title ‘dragon’ without any other specifiers. Perhaps they feared an actual dragon finding out and taking revenge upon them, or perhaps the name was just so prestigious even common people found it rude.

The projection they were all looking at was actually what Sage saw with his own eyes just a few moments ago in the outside world. Just beneath him he felt a powerful aura surging closer and closer. It came out of nowhere, approaching at such speed that he almost instantly turned to flee. Since it came from below he shot upwards towards the surface to build the greatest distance between them in the shortest amount of time. It was a shame he didn’t already have his Timeless Eyes activated, but he focused on conserving energy to travel efficiently and this threat came out of nowhere. The research teams kept playing back the short moment he got to look at it before he shot away. It also made him wish this dolphin-like body had eyes like a chameleon right now so he could take a better look at the monster that was following him.